Home is Where Your Heart is
by Fangirl66
Summary: Jimmy Neutron left his friends and family behind to become the best of the best. Now, at age seventeen, he's back. Just what will our favorite genius stir up while he's back in his old hometown? J/C and S/L


**Okay first Jimmy Neutron fic so be kind...I made this for my little sister who is absolutely OBSESSED with the show. (Not that I'm not XD)**

**Please review and enjoy!**

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**Chapter One**

Jimmy's eyes focused on the blurry images, speedily flashing by outside his window. The bus had been rumbling on for hours, steadily bringing him closer and closer to home. Well, if he still considered Retroville his home anyway. He hadn't stepped foot in the place for four—no five years, not even for holidays or breaks. He had transferred out of his middle school at age twelve to attend a prestigious, out-of-state, boarding school for the incredibly intelligent.

He left behind his family and friends all for the sake of becoming the best of the best. And he was very close to achieving that goal, already earning two Nobel Peace Prizes and several offers for funding and scholarships, but an unforeseen accident at his school put a detour in his plans forcing him to enroll in Retroville High until the problem could be sorted out. So that was why James Neutron, no one called him Jimmy anymore, was on this unsanitary Greyhound Bus heading towards Retroville.

He sighed focusing back onto the numerous, slightly familiar street signs passing by, dreading what this year had in store for him.

* * *

Rumors spread like fire around Retroville High School, Their very own kid-genius had returned.

"I heard he got kicked out of that fancy school up north because one of his crazy experiments backfired and killed a teacher!"

"Yeah? Well _I_ heard he finally snapped! Ya know, couldn't take the pressure of being a genius anymore and just quit."

One Cindy Vortex rolled her eyes at the insistent babble that seemed to consume the school on this fine Monday morning. Yes, she had heard that the famed James Isaac Neutron had finally returned to Retroville, and no she didn't care. He was probably even more conceited and self-centered then he had been at twelve, what was the point of bothering with people like him?

**(Cindy POV)**

I sat down next to my best friend, Libby, though I was blatantly ignored since she was too busy arguing with her boyfriend, Sheen Estevez, too even notice my presence.

"No Sheen, I will not make up a cheer just for you."

"C'mon Lib! Here I'll even help you!" He cleared his throat and stood up. "Sheen, Sheen he's our man! If he can't do it no one can!"

I laughed as Libby rolled her eyes and pulled her hyperactive boyfriend back into his seat. Sheen had recently earned the position of starting quarterback on the football team and now, I suppose, he's _begging_ Libby to make up a cheer for him. I rolled my eyes, the school quarterback and the head cheerleader…it was so cliché it made me sick, but I couldn't deny that they made an absolutely adorable couple.

"Hey guys." I smiled in greeting as Carl sat down opposite me, being completely ignored by the other two just as I had been. "What are they fighting about this time?"

"Sheen wants Libby to force the squad into cheering just for him." I shrugged uncaringly, Sheen had the attention span of a toaster and would probably forget about this in—

"They have grilled cheese!? Yes! Lunch today is totally stacked!" See what I mean?

Libby sighed and watched him speed off towards the lunch line. "Honestly sometimes I wonder what I see in that boy…"

Carl smirked, "Don't we all."

She smiled and threw a fry at him that missed only to hit Ms. Fowl (who was now a high school teacher) right in the forehead. "Bwaaaaaak! You hooligans! Who threw that bwaaa-french fry?"

We all ducked our heads and snickered. "Anyway," Libby began, once she was sure Ms. Fowl had passed. "Can you believe that Jimmy's back? I mean we haven't seen him in like, _forever_!"

Carl shrugged, "We didn't really keep in touch, not for lack of trying on me and Sheen's part, though…" He trailed of and Libby and I made eye contact. We had never really heard Sheen or Carl talk about Jimmy. That, I guess, in-it-of itself is kind of weird, I mean, hadn't they all been best friends?

"What ever happened between you three anyway, Carl?" My interest had peaked at this point, and I couldn't help but delve deeper now that I was curious.

Carl shrugged again but Sheen, now back with a trey pilled high with grilled cheeses, was the one to answer me. "He got some fancy scholarship to this school up north, a 'once-in-a-lifetime-opportunity' he called it. His parents didn't want him to go, hell me and Carl didn't want him to go either, but he was really persistent. He and his mom got in this huge fight, a lot of yelling and stuff, and then he just left. We—me and Carl—tried to keep in touch with him with letters and emails and stuff but that school kept him really busy. After a while it all just stopped coming and we stopped trying." Sheen shrugged, "Its gonna be weird having him back."

"Wow…" Libby started, "That's so sad. I had no idea, I mean I knew he went away to go to school but I had no clue what was going on in the background."

I sighed, "Whatever, you guys are better off without him."

Libby raised an eyebrow at me before looking back at Carl and Sheen, "Don't mind her, she's still pissed at him for leaving and breaking her heart."

I glared, "Oh shut up. I was like eleven give me a break."

Sheen burst out laughing while Carl tried to politely hold back his sniggers, "You had a _crush_ on him? No _way_! Was that why you were always calling him names?"

I blushed and promptly shoved a grilled cheese into his mouth. "Libby shut your boyfriend up before I maim him."

Libby giggled and patted Sheen's arm in an attempt to settle him down. Once they were all done laughing at me I cleared my throat and attempted to change the subject off of my pre-teen crushing. "So where is he anyway? I thought he was supposed to start today."

As if on cue a wave of silence followed by urgent whispering swept over the cafeteria. People craned their necks in an attempt to get a glimpse of someone who had just walked through the double doors of the lunch hall. I raised an eyebrow when I saw what all the fuss was about.

There, walking in with Betty Quinlan, was a tall stranger with messy brown hair and startling blue eyes. He was wearing the school uniform, black pants and a long-sleeved white shirt with matching black tie. Nick didn't even look as good in the school uniform as this kid did. I felt my breath catch in my throat as I made eye contact with him, immediately sinking into cold blue depths. And just as quickly as it happened those orbs released me from their spell, turning their icy gaze back to Betty.

"And this," I heard her say. "If the cafeteria. Next up on the tour are the science buildings, I'm sure they'll be your favorite stop." She giggled flirtatiously but stopped quickly when all he did was stare blankly at her. She fidgeted nervously before leading them out of the cafeteria through the side door.

Libby whistled, "Whoa, there is no way that, that tall-dark-and-hansom fellow was Jimmy Neutron."

"I think it was…" I said incredulously. Man had he changed, he most definitely was _not_ that short little nerd I had teased and crushed on in middle school. He was a drop dead sexy seventeen year-old, and I hadn't been the only one to notice either. The entire room (Well, mostly the girls.) was buzzing excitedly.

"Well girl you better go mark your territory," Libby said knowingly. "otherwise I think your little _nerdtron_ is going to be claimed by someone else."

I was about to retort but was luckily saved from having to list all the reasons (and there were a lot) why I could care less about Jimmy Neutron by the bell ringing. "I got to run I have AP Physics and Dr. Tracy hates it when I'm late." I grabbed my bag and headed towards the science building.

* * *

About ten minuets into the period Dr. Tracy was interrupted mid-rant by a light knock on the door.

In walked that same sex god from—I mean in walked Neutron in all his nonchalant glory. He silently handed a note to Dr. Tracy and waited for instruction. She read the note quickly before turning her gaze to him. "So you're the famous James Neutron? I expect great things from you in this class. You can go take a seat next to Ms. Vortex, she's right over there, Cindy please raise your hand."

I obliged hesitantly, still afraid to look into his eyes for fear of drowning in their intensity. My _God_—I sound like freaking Shakespeare over here! This kid has only been back for like five minuets and he's already messing with my head! I glanced over to him and was shocked to see that he wasn't even _pretending_ to pay attention but instead was choosing to stair blankly out the window.

I glared at him heatedly and went back to my note taking, successfully ignoring the pompous-ass for the rest of the period. However getting rid of him wasn't as easy as I had originally hoped. He ended up also being in my AP Honors Calculus class as well as both my Advanced Micro _and_ Macro Economics classes.

I sighed and slammed my locker door shut. In every class I had with him he acted _exactly_ the same; cold, un-caring, and blank…quite frankly his little attitude problem was beginning to piss me off. What happened to the charismatic, energetic, and dare I say _fun_ Jimmy I had known as a kid? It was like that school had sucked all the life out of him, replacing it with boring old blankness.

"I'll see you later, James." I looked up to see Betty waving goodbye to Jimmy and heading towards her car, I smirked when he didn't even acknowledge her farewell. It was then that I realized that he was walking the d=same direction as I was, and why wouldn't he? We _are_ neighbors after all.

I took a deep breath, "Okay Cindy, you can do this." I whispered to myself, not even very sure what exactly 'this'was. Throwing caution to the wind I broke into a jog to catch up to my childhood friend. "Hey Jimmy! Wait up!"

I was surprised when he actually turned around, expecting him to ignore me like he had everyone else. When I fell into step beside him I realized that he was giving me a very confused look. "What?" I asked nervously. Was there something on my face? Well crap, great going Vortex you sure know how to make an impression.

He blinked once before turning to face forward again. At first I thought he was going to ignore my question completely but was surprised again when his deep baritone voice replied. "No one's called me Jimmy since I was like twelve, I suppose I was just surprised to hear it."

I smiled, instantly liking the sound of his voice. "Well you'll always be Jimmy Spewtron to me, no matter how many Nobel Prizes you win." He smirked at that but didn't answer. We walked the rest of the way in silence—comfortable silence, but just as we were about to go our separate ways I decided to be spontaneous.

"You know, there's a football game tonight." He paused and turned back to me with an eyebrow raised in confusion. Jeez for a genius he wasn't that smart. "You should go it'll be fun. You _do_ still remember what fun is, right?"

He rolled his eyes at me. "I'm busy."

I snorted. "With _what_? I'm in all your classes and I know for a fact that you didn't right down the homework."

He smirked and tilted his chin up ever so slightly to stare down is nose superiorly at me. "So you watching me?"

I blushed scarlet, "N-no, I'm just a _very_ observant person." This boy was _so_ frustrating! All I was trying to do was hold out a hand of friendship to help is integration back into Retroville seem more welcoming. "Sheen's the quarterback, Libby's cheerleading captain, and Carl's the mascot…I just thought that _maybe_ you would like to see some of your old friends." I turned to go and made it all the way to my porch before his voice stopped me.

"What time is the game?" I couldn't hold back my smirk of triumph.

* * *

James Isaac Neutron was _not_ happy. How can I tell, you ask? Well, I'm pretty sure that glaring and the tightening of the jaw are not indicators of happiness. Not only was it absolutely freezing but also _every_ two freaking seconds some random girl keeps coming up to Jimmy and attempts to flirt with him! And he wasn't the only one getting pissed off mind you, if they kept shoving me there was going to be some bloodshed up in here.

"So you're like really, really smart and stuff…" Was that supposed to be a question? A conversation starter? Either way, Britney, you need to back up off him before something bad happens to you.

She giggled and twirled her hair around her finger opening her mouth to say something that probably wasn't going to be very intelligent, "You must, like, read a lot of books and stuff." See? I'm _always _right. Is this girl _really_ this dumb or is she just trying to get attention?

"Here," I said, finally having enough of Britney's useless rambling. I quickly grabbed the sleeve of his black North Face and tugged him in the direction of the field. "I know a place where we can go."

I lead him down the stands to the gate in the fence that opened onto the track surrounding the football field. I had barley stepped foot onto the track before a voice stopped me. "Cindy, you're not allowed to be on the track while there's a football game going on." Even though she was talking to me, Betty looked at Jimmy the entire time she was talking.

"Its okay Betty, go lead the girls in cheer four." I smiled thankfully as Libby sent Betty away. She smiled at Jimmy, "What's up Shorty? Though, I guess I can't really call you that anymore."

He nodded to her, "Hey Libby." I jumped as the half time buzzer rang causing a multitude of cheering to issue from our student section since we were winning forty-nine to zero.

"Yo Jimmy!" My smile brightened even more as Sheen and Carl, Carl still dressed in his mascot costume, ran over to see us.

"Sheen, shouldn't you be in the huddle?" Said quarterback rolled his eyes and draped his arm around the vexed cheerleader's shoulders.

"Chill sweetheart, we got this game in the bag they don't need me over there."

An awkward silence overcame the group. We stared at Jimmy and Jimmy just stared off into space like he didn't even care that the friends he hadn't seen in five years were standing right in front of him. Before I knew it the buzzer rang again and the three ran off to their respective places. I didn't even realize that Jimmy had walked away from me until he was around the fence and walking toward his house.

"Hey Jimmy, Where—!" I was taken aback when he spun around on his heel and fixed me with a sub-zero glare.

"What exactly are you trying to pull, Vortex?" I blinked, confused as to what he was accusing me of. But before I could voice my thoughts he disappeared into the thick crowd of cheering students.

Jus what had I done wrong?

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**What, exactly, did Cindy do wrong? Why didn't Jimmy care about seeing all his old friends? or did he care? I love comments so please review!**


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